Passing 10 percent market share may seem good for Windows 8, matching that of Windows Phone 8 on the mobile side but adoption is likely to be well under what Microsoft would have wanted for the year.

Windows 8.1, which Microsoft made available as a free download almost exactly a year after the launch of Windows 8, picked up nearly a percent in market share in one month.

Windows 8 has been shipping on tablets as well as PCs and laptops but has struggled to compete with Apple's iPad and cheap Android tablets such as the Tesco Hudl and Google Nexus 7. The family PC is quickly being replaced by multiple mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Personal computing has become far more personal.

For older versions of Windows, version 7 gained 0.88 percent to 47.5 percent during the festive month while XP saw a drop of 2.24 percent to 28.98 percent. The latter is approaching the end of its life - support will end on 8 April this year.

Windows remains the most popular operating system globally with a market share of 90.73 percent across all versions. Mac OS X and Linux trail with 7.54 percent and 1.73 percent respectively. Although in small amounts, Microsoft's market share has declined during 2013 while Apple and Linux both grew.